Clearfield County PA Archives Tombstone Photo.....Early Clearfield Borough Cemeteries
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http://file.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/cemeteries/clearfieldborough-cemeteries.txt

Files contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ellis Michaels

This page was last updated:
08 Oct 2008

Taken from "History of Clearfield County" by Lewis Cass Aldrich, published
in 1887

pages 375-376

CEMETERIES. 

     The first tract of land laid out for the burial-place of deceased
persons in the vicinity of Clearfield, was the " Ogden grave-yard," as it has
always been known. The exact time at which this lot was first used for the
purpose cannot now be definitely determined. There are still standing two
plain stones bearing date of interment earlier than 1814. Daniel Ogden, the
pioneer, 
was buried there in 1818. The lot lies in the south part of the borough, a
short distance above M. S. Ogden’s residence. In all there were not to exceed
fifty interments made in this lot, and it comprises only a few square rods of
land. There have been no interments here for many years. 

     On the corner now occupied by the Lutheran Church edifice there was a
small grave-yard known as the Frazier burying-ground. There is difficulty in
fixing the date of its laying out, and no trace of its existence now remains,
the bodies having been removed for the erection of the church. 

     The oldest regularly laid out cemetery in the vicinity was the tract of
land in the east part of the town known as the Clearfield Cemetery, and is
said, on competent authority, to have been established about the year 1838.
The land embraced by it was donated by Alexander B. Reed and Richard Shaw.
The deed from the former is found on the records, and bears the date January
7, 1853, but the cemetery is known to have been used some time prior to that
date. It comprised about three acres of land. The trustees to whom the deed
from Mr. Reed was made were Ellis Irwin, Jonathan Boynton, and Ferdinand P.
Hurxthal. 

     The lands of the present Clearfield Cemetery Company are located a
short distance north from the land above mentioned and embrace about twenty
acres, eight acres of which are cleared and plotted. The company opened the
cemetery for its intended purpose in the month of December, 1881. The capital
stock of the corporation is $3,000. The officers are Jonathan Boynton,
president ; William H. Dill, treasurer, and James Kerr, secretary;
superintendent of grounds, George Thorn ; directors, W. A. Wallace, W. W.
Betts, W. D. Bigler, Jno. Boynton, and James Kerr. 

     From the time of the building of St. Francis Church in 1830, the land
adjoining that edifice on the south was used as the Catholic cemetery until
the year 1876, when the heirs of the estate of Hugh Leavy donated a piece of
land one and one-half acres in extent, for the use of the society as a
cemetery. The bodies lying at the grounds near the church were disinterred
and removed to the new lot.  This cemetery is near the borough line, and just
outside of it near the southeast part of the borough.

     Of the other old cemeteries in the vicinity, but not within the borough
are the Shaw family burying-grounds, situated on the hill side west of and
opposite the borough, and the Owens grave-yard on lands of John Owens, by
whom it was laid out about a mile east from the borough. Of these two only
the Owens lot has been used as a public burying-place.